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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28269993">Kaia of Petal Meadows</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claireanela/pseuds/Claireanela'>Claireanela</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mario Villain Backstories [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mario Story | Paper Mario, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Super Mario &amp; Related Fandoms</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Can’t tag a lot because it’s all a spoiler, F/M, Framed narrative- my English teacher would be proud, I made a backstory for PMTTYD, I promise this is better than my tagging ability, If you like canon Paper Mario angst I’ve got you, No gore but some disturbing things happen, Shadow Queen backstory</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:22:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,530</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28269993</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claireanela/pseuds/Claireanela</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaia is a happy young woman who’s crazily in love. Out of nowhere, she’s forced into a life she wants no part in, and tries to keep from actually going crazy.<br/>If only her one true love had given her the benefit of the doubt when she needed it most.<br/>Goombella doesn’t really mind because she gets to read the weirdest romance novel she’s ever seen. And it’s nonfiction!</p><p>(Inspired by Wicked.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Goombella/Goombario, Original Character/Original Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Mario Villain Backstories [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2252957</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Kaia of Petal Meadows</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was incredibly fun to write.</p><p>(Italics mean a passage from the journal.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     On the Rogueport archeological site, Goombella had never been so excited as when she discovered a scroll sealed in a small box.</p><p>     She opened it up to discover text from around a thousand years ago! What an awesome find!</p>
<hr/><p>     The first passage:</p><p>     <em> The world is broken almost beyond repair, and soon I must join my friends in death.  </em></p><p>
  <em>      It is morbid and inescapable that my thoughts turn to Kaia, the bitter causality of this all.  </em>
</p><p>     <em> I, a simple Toadstool, </em> (Goombella recognized the archaic word for “Toad”) <em> cannot help but remember those soft brown curls and glistening green eyes, those tiny brown hands that held mine reassuringly. She was the most beautiful human. </em></p><p> </p><p>
  <em>      She was the daughter of a widowed merchant, and she had three sisters.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>      Kaia and I hoped to be married. </em>
</p><p>     “Eli…”</p><p>     The red Toad jolted from his thoughts.</p><p>     “What are you doing, silly?” Kaia giggled. They were walking together along the sunny town square.</p><p>     “Ah-“</p><p>     A rock smacked him on the cheek and he winced. </p><p>     “Ya gonna squeal, <em> Squeaky?!” </em> the neighborhood bully cackled in her red coat. Her brothers giggled next to her, in white and purple respectively.</p><p>     Magic sparks formed on Kaia’s fingers, and she chased them away with electricity.</p><p>     She turned back to him. “Don’t worry, Eli. Out of all the ones I’ve heard, your voice is my favorite.”</p><p> </p><p>     <em> It wasn’t to be. Kaia was a beautiful woman adept at magic and from a well known family. </em></p><p>     Her father gave his permission to the prince. Upstairs, three of his daughters tried to soothe their frantic sister.</p><p>     <em> I will admit they couldn’t have found a worse match for Kaia. He did such awful things as only referring to Kaia’s youngest sister by her old name. He generally wasn’t known for kindness. </em></p><p> </p><p>     “How was your trip to the market, Your Highness?” the advisor in white, the old bully from her hometown said with a sneer. Kaia sank into her seat.</p><p>     Her husband went red. “Market?”</p><p>     “And I’m pleased you enjoyed your conversation with your old friend Eli.”</p><p>     Kaia went so pale she was almost gray.</p><p>     Her husband looked at her like she was a bug squashed under his shoe.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>      The prince and king died suddenly, merely six months apart. I would have never suspected her. </em>
</p><p>     She slipped nightshade into the king’s morning wine, a moment after the taster finished and the rogue princess disappeared into the shadows. She was the only one who had heard his threats to kill her true love. </p><p>     Her heavy tears during the funeral convinced her husband of her innocence, and he beheaded the taster.</p><p>     The new king returned to his old abuse all too soon, and Kaia brought herself to end him too. For Eli.</p><p>     </p><p>     <em> She was queen now, in such a horrific way. Soon after, she created seven gems to enhance her power. I began to wonder if this was for more selfish designs. </em></p><p> </p><p>     Queen Kaia led Eli into the room. He stopped, staring at the glittering stones circling them. </p><p>     “I call them the Crystal Stars,” she said softly. As much as she hated it, this kingdom needed someone to protect it.</p><p>     And if this was her duty, wasn’t she allowed some happiness in it?</p><p>     She got on her knees, clutching Eli’s hand. “Will you marry me?”</p><p> </p><p>     <em> A month before our wedding, Kaia killed her sister Bella. She said it was an accident, but her later deeds showed otherwise. </em></p><p> </p><p>     An ice spell. Bella wanted to learn an ice spell. And a single, innocent slip of her oldest sister’s tongue froze all the blood in her body solid.</p><p>     Kaia screamed, flying to her books to cast every spell she knew to revive her-</p><p>     Tears poured out of her jade eyes as she blended a shadow manipulation spell and a necromancy one- already veering into territory forbidden for centuries-</p><p>     Her sister awoke as a memoryless, shriveled creature made of purple darkness. The ice magic was so impenetrable in her veins she was reborn with frosty blue hair.</p><p>     She tried to call Kaia, “Mother.”</p><p>     Revulsion and guilt devoured the young woman.</p><p>     Kaia ran from that hideous, horrible creature feeding off her sister’s soul.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>      So I betrayed her, and joined the rebellion to defeat the wicked Queen Kaia. </em>
</p><p>     The Shadow Bella followed her, promising she would do anything Kaia wanted if she would only give her a name. </p><p>     Not even Kaia would be that heartless.</p><p>     She christened her with a fusion of the word in her language meaning “chaos” and corrupted it to sound more like her sister’s name.</p><p>     “Your name is Beldam.”</p><p> </p><p>     It was in this chaos of mind and heart that the captain of the guard told her Eli had fled the castle. He’d taken her spellbooks.</p><p> </p><p>     Betrayal.</p><p> </p><p>     The string holding Kaia’s sanity broke.   </p><p>     She would attend to her other sisters now.</p>
<hr/><p>     Goombella had to head home for the day, but took the scroll with her.</p><p>     Goombette, Goombella’s teenage daughter who always wore the same hand-me-down blue cap, noticed just how excited her mother was and offered to make dinner.</p><p>     Goombella leapt at the opportunity to learn more about this historical story.</p>
<hr/><p>     <em> It was then that I learned the fate of her sisters Marilyn and Vivian. </em></p><p> </p><p>     Her third oldest sister spun from her spot at the fireplace, beaming. “Oh, Kaia! It’s so good to see-“</p><p>     She met her sister’s blood red eyes and gasped. “Are you okay?”</p><p>     “Of course.” Kaia breathed. Vivian’s fire began creeping towards her.</p><p>     She expected red or orange hair in this new Vivian, but couldn’t bring herself to care about the curly pink locks. She was perfect now.</p><p>     The middle of her sisters dashed down the stairs, probably having heard Vivian’s screams.</p><p>     Kaia beamed. Electricity would serve Marilyn well, wouldn’t it?</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>      She called the reanimations of her murdered siblings her “Shadow Sirens.” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>     Beldam brought her the new high collar cape, a magnificent violet thing with jagged white edges on the bottom and a ruby on the clasp.</p><p>     Vivian fawned over her matching new ball gown with its pointed sleeves and white outlined accents on her hips.</p><p>     Kaia herself cooed over her luscious brown curls, cut to her neck.</p><p>     Such a shame that Eli didn’t love her when she was so beautiful.</p><p>     But if no one loved her, she simply wouldn’t love anyone but herself.</p><p> </p><p>     <em> In light of this, I formed a plan to liberate the kingdom from my former fiancée. </em></p><p>“Strength is my best point,” Eli said.</p><p>     “Where ya from again?” the scarred Koopa (Koopez) asked. “I ain’t seen you around here.”</p><p>     “I’m from Petal Meadows.”</p><p>     “Ah. That’s where the Queen is from.”</p><p>     He nodded, trying not to give himself away.</p><p>     “I’m from Boggly Woods!” the Goomba (Goombine) chirped, prying herself from her book. “I’m working on this new art called Tattling!”</p><p>     The Boo (Booria) grinned. (Eli had seen her gazing lovingly at Koopez.) “I can’t wait to spook that stupid Queen of the Shadow People!”</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>      Kaia then cursed the old town bullies, the ones that grew up to serve her dead husband. She turned them into dragons and forced them to attack their own families.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>     They’d been the ones to tell him about her single conversation with Eli. She remembered them in their red, purple, and white coats smirking as they gave her husband another reason to hurt her. They’d tormented her so completely, laughing at the helpless young princess.</p><p>     Was this an equivalent punishment? She didn’t care.</p><p> </p><p>     <em> Kaia destroyed our beautiful homeland in her quest for blood. </em></p><p>     <em> We stole her precious Crystal Stars after Goombine suggested that was why she was so invincible. </em></p><p>
  <em>      We went to battle, and she split her soul and body to become a horrific monster. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>     Eli struck the mortal blow to her human body. The blasted Koopa nearly did the same to her soul.</p><p>     Curse his pathetic, backstabbing self.</p><p>     Curse?</p><p>     Her eyes gleamed red as she sensed a tiny gap in their sealing spell.</p><p>     Justice would be served.</p><p> </p><p>     <em> A healer is to hide the very last of the Stars, though in doing so, I am doomed. </em></p><p>     <em> The moment this last Crystal Star leaves my possession, I will become a demon, cursed for eternity. She outwitted us all. </em></p><p>
  <em>      Oh, Kaia, my Shadow Queen. You were always cleverer than I. </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>     Goombella’s husband, Goombario, jumped when she let out a stunned cry. </p><p>     “Geez, you scared me! What did you find out?”</p><p>     “I just found out the Shadow Queen’s entire backstory.”</p><p>     “Whoa- <em> WHAT?! </em> You gotta tell me over dinner.”</p><p>     So many things began to click in the archeologist’s head. How did she even begin to understand the Queen’s, much less Vivian’s origin story?</p>
<hr/><p>     The demon was no longer known as Kaia. Instead, she was the Shadow Queen, one of Queen Jaydes’ most distinguished prisoners, an infamous tyrant and murderer. </p><p>     One of her punishments was devilishly clever.</p><p>     The Queen was a human, not her spectacular shadow form.</p><p>     And not even her true human form either. </p><p>     Her magic chains reflected back a twisted version of her short blonde hair and dainty face.</p><p>     Fragile. She was humiliatingly and painfully weak. And every time she looked at herself, she was reminded of a princess who had everything she didn’t.</p><p>     She almost wished she could go back to the days she was happy.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The Shadow Queen is so fabulous and terrifying at the same time. </p><p>Also:<br/>Blumiere: Turns evil for his love.<br/>Kaia: “Frick that. I’m going to be evil for kicks.”</p></blockquote></div></div>
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